Navigating legal pluralism in Britain: A BSM-Inspired Approach

The matrimonial practices of Muslims in Britain, along with their faith-based community mechanisms, have been at the centre of sustained public controversy for many years now. While these issues continue to receive significant attention both in academic and public debates, they have surprisingly featured very little in the work of BSM scholars despite being closely aligned with the school’s main concerns. This paper seeks to develop this area in line with the BSMs distinctive approach to multicultural accommodation which is more dialogical, contextual, and bottom-up rather than purely top-down and state-led. To conceptualize the operation of Muslim family norms and practices in Britain, this paper focuses on three key concepts—minority legal order which characterizes the system of Sharia-based laws that many British Muslims adhere to, legal pluralism which characterizes the broader socio-legal scene, and inter-legality which describes the practices of British Muslims navigating the norms, tools, and mechanisms of this pluralist landscape. The paper then tackles state responses to this diversity of norms arguing that the current approach is best characterized as a combination of general L aissez-faire and limited accommodation. This approach is further appraised by looking at how far the state and English law more specifically has adapted through its interaction with Sharia-based norms in the areas of marriage and divorce.